13 TV Special Effects You Thought Were CGI, But Aren't

When Star Trek: The Next Generation burst onto the scene in 1987, the effects team stirred store-bought glitter in water. Showrunner Rick Berman and star LeVar Burton demonstrated this in an episode of Burton's PBS show.Star Trek: The Next GenerationIn 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation burst onto the scene. Before digital effects took over the transporter, the effects team stirred store-bought glitter in water. Showrunner Rick Berman and star LeVar Burton demonstrated this in an episode of Burton's PBS show.Reading RainbowThey optically composite this effect over the actor being beamed up or down.

Decades before CGI existed, the original effect used physical methods.Star TrekThe original series showed cheesy practical effects. It also featured a unique transporter effect. The original series achieved this effect byoptically compositingThe technique involved descending grains of aluminum powder, then back-lighting them for a "glowing" look.

As theStar TrekThe Star Trek franchise moved into the 1990s. It kept using old Hollywood tricks for its first-class special effects.

For world-building in Star Trek: Deep Space NineStar Trek: Deep Space NineThe third live-action Star Trek TV series used hand-painted backgrounds composited into frames asStar TrekThe backgrounds for the Star Trek TV series were painted by hand and composited into frames as matte paintings.matte paintingsThis happened instead of building things digitally. It fooled the audience!

HBO's Game of Thrones, a pricey prestige epic fantasy series,Game of ThronesWhile Game of Thrones used CGI, it used practical effects when possible. During the "Loot Train" scene in Season 7, 73 stunt people wereset on firedoomed to be dragon-breath targets, including 20 for one shot. Director Matt Shakman said, "We burned more stuntmen than ever in a single shot and sequence."behind-the-scenes video.

The dragon in question (Drogon, commanded by Daenerys Targaryen) was digital.

The toddler creature from the same alien genus as Yoda on the Disney+ Star WarsStar WarshitThe MandalorianFans nicknamed Baby Yoda, but the show named him Grogu. Jon Favreau, creator and co-executive producer, pushed back. He wanted 'The Child' made as a puppet, like the original Yoda.The Empire Strikes Backby creature maker Stuart Freeborn.

Goran Backman of Pixomondo confirmed in a Screen Rant interview that Yoda was mostly a practical effect. "We helped with paint for wires and other puppet parts, but that was all."Screen Rant interviewFor most of the time, Yoda was a practical effect. "We helped with paint for wires and other puppet parts, but that was the extent of it."

In the BBC's Sherlock Holmes TV show, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman did the Bed-Transition. A bed was brought to the middle of a field and raised to camera level.SherlockIn Sherlock, the brilliant investigator (Cumberbatch) stands in a field, then 'falls' backward onto his bed during a transition. The shot looksinterestingThe 'Sherlock' bed transition involved bringing an actual bed to the field's center and lifting it to camera level, not just using greenscreen or spliced shots.

The Sherlock bed transition involved bringing a bed to the field and raising it to camera level.This is shown in behind-the-scenes footage.This shot is as incredible as the final result.

The demise of Gus in Breaking Bad used a digital and practical hybrid approach.ExplosiveGus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito)'s demise used a mix of practical and digital effects. Showrunner Vince Gilligan said, 'This explosion was a marriage of many different areas of expertise, both in physical special effects and makeup and in digital effects,' while discussing the moment for 'Breaking Bad'.Breaking Bad.Season 4 home video commentary track, per Variety.Uproxx..

The physical prosthetic makeup for Gus's final look came from the KNB EFX Group. Digital tweaks in post-production refined Gus's gruesome appearance.

During a chat with Variety.Variety.where he previewed the eighth season of AMC's zombie hitThe Walking Dead., EP/director Greg Nicotero shared an effect detail. A 'walker' got stuck in a steel fence, fell, and landed with its head twisted around.

Nicotero excitedly revealed, 'We did a full prosthetic makeup on the performer, then we dug a hole in the ground and buried his face, then put an animatronic head on top of his head, so we could turn it all around.' We want the audience to guess how it's done.

We thought this desaturation effect on the ghosts in Netflix'sThe Haunting of Hill House.color correction by editors and/or visual effect artists achieved this, not makeup artists on set.

Robert Kurtzman, head of the show's special makeup effects department, led his team to create a specialMakeup artists desaturated the ghosts in The Haunting of Hill House.This grayscale look applied to all the ghosts happened during production.

The Expanse filmed a tsunami by building the set in a huge pool and using water cannons.The Expanse.explored an Earth-like planet named Ilus for its fourth season. To get a more real flood effect than digital, the effects team chose practical for aThe tsunami scene..

A set for the flooded terrain was built in a huge pool and blasted with water cannons to make a strong flood effect.

Drone Hosts, the robotic staff for Delos Incorporated's Westworld theme park, were surprisingly practical on set. Fractured FX creative director Justin Raleigh praised the showrunners' choice to go fully practical in aRue Morgue. Interview..

Raleigh stated, "I’m still thrilled with the Drones; they are awesome and new." He added, "Having a head-to-toe character that is one hundred percent practical/makeup effects... a guy in a suit, when it could have easily become a computer-generated visual effect... I think that’s a big accomplishment. It took fourteen weeks to design and develop that suit Alexander Ward wore, and a huge team built all that stuff."

YesLost featured an actual Lockheed 1011 jet shipped to the island and dismantled.Lost was not without digital wizardry. One visual, however, happened practically. During the pilot, survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 landed on the island. They walked through the flight's debris. People might assume the wreckage was a mix of set design and CGI. That assumption is wrong, Lloyd Braun, former ABC chairman, explained.The show explained this fact., pieces of an actual plane reached the Oahu location.

"The plane was a logistical monster," Braun told Empire Magazine. "We found it in a junkyard, cut it up, got it there on a barge, and reassembled it on the beach. Pre-production craziness aside, this pilot was the most expensive in history. It cost a fortune.". "We found it in a junkyard, cut it up, got it there on a barge, and reassembled it on the beach. Pre-production craziness aside, this pilot was the most expensive in history. It cost a fortune."

An intriguing rundown for "In an intriguing rundown for..."The Guardian covered this., director/showrunner Cary Fukunaga showed how he made the show's first season's signature moment. He created a six-minute tracking shot with zero digital cuts. The camera follows detective Rustin Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) as he runs through dangerous projects with a hostage, biker club member Ginger (Joseph Sikora), taking fire toward a safe meeting with Cohle's partner Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson).

"I wanted to go through houses, I wanted to go over fences, and I wanted it to be unbroken," Fukunaga wrote. "To achieve that, we needed every department involved, like a live theater show. Makeup artists hid in houses to quickly apply makeup to [Cohle's hostage] Ginger's head. We panned away for a second while Cohle called Marty."

"The Robot" (the 6'7" Brian "Creature Boy" Steele), a giant mechanical being, is actually a guy in a bodysuit—not a digital effect—for"approximately 85%" is involved.of its coverage, says Spectral Motion co-founder Mike Elizalde. "It's exciting that there is so much of our robot in the series," Elizalde said. The robot, a companion to the Robinson family in the Netflix reboot of the original 1960sThis is a science fiction TV series., wears a bodysuit covered in fiberglass armor.

The animated monitor on "The Robot's" face, however, is digital.